The founder of woman-owned Bay Area chocolate company says in some ways owning a chocolate business is hard as ever (via eatersf)
in Berkeley around 2007 for her getting into the chocolate game. The success of that company, which was later acquired by Hershey, forecasted where chocolate was going in Fong’s mind. But unlike Scharffen Berger, which was founded by a vintner, Fong’s business — which often highlights flavors common to Filipino and Chinese Americans such as mango, rice, and various teas — was once ridiculed by a customer for its “esoteric flavors,” she recalls. “It was a little bit shocking,” Fong says.
Still, Lieu doesn’t want to give the impression she’s bitter. She eventually realized it was an advantage to feature less-common flavors and then began to wonder why Vietnamese coffee couldn’t be a flavor for chocolate, or guava, or durian. There were no Asian, woman, or Vietnamese chocolatiers that she knew of in Sonoma, the county where she started the business.
Lopez-Maggi’s handiwork was some of the first plant-based chocolate to spring up in the Bay Area’s craft chocolate scene.In 2020, the Xocolate Bar shop shut down to customers due to the pandemic and pivoted to online sales, which the company had never offered before; shipping always seemed like too much work. Now the Solano Avenue shop resembles a mini-warehouse with packages stacked floor to ceiling.
, a Bay Area-based tech company like Etsy for wholesalers, was a big boon. “Volume has quadrupled since before the pandemic,” Lopez-Maggi says. “It’s this Tetris puzzle of how to maximize space. It’s constant.”up provides the same challenges as ever; finding an affordable location to grow into will be a challenge, Lopez-Maggi says.
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